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Newscasts

PNS Daily Newscast - February 22, 2019

North Carolina will hold a new election to fill the final disputed seat in the U.S. House. Also on our Friday rundown: Baltimore sues Monsanto and others for polluting city waterways. Plus, a public lands program moves towards permanent status.

As TN Rape Kits Sit on Shelves, State Comptroller Urges Update

The Joyful Heart Foundation released a PSA this month nationwide, working to raise awareness about the problem of untested rape kits in crime labs across the country. (Joyful Heart Foundation)

February 19, 2018

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – At last count, more than 9,000 rape kits sat on shelves in storage across Tennessee, but that number could be even higher.

The state Comptroller's Office is recommending that lawmakers ask for an update on the status of processing the kits – at the same time that a national campaign is releasing a series of public service announcements to underscore the importance of crime labs catching up on the problem.

Ilse Knecht, policy and advocacy director for the Joyful Heart Foundation, says Tennessee has some work to do.

"They've been testing them, but we don't really know what it looks like right now, and I think there needs to be another, some kind of audit or inventory to see, you know, have people been sending their old kits?” she stresses. “Are they sending their new kits? Are they complying with the law?"

Last year Tennessee legislators introduced a bill to shorten the deadlines for submission of newly collected rape kits, but the bill did not pass.

Currently, according to the Joyful Heart Foundation, Memphis' crime lab has a 32-week turnaround time for testing rape kits, Knoxville's is 10 weeks and Nashville has a 16-week wait.

The PSA released by Joyful Heart is titled "Shelved" and features a rape survivor being transported to a tall shelf in a warehouse, filled with hundreds of other survivors waiting on their kits to be tested.

"The man that raped me was white, about 5'8", probably about 170 pounds, crooked nose, sandy blond hair,” the survivor relates. “All of those details, plus the DNA, is enough evidence for you to catch him, right? Right?"

Knecht says while resolution of rape cases is a need for survivors of assault – processing them is also resulting in the solving of hundreds of other crimes, and the prevention of untold more.